Think Tank Achieves Widespread Recognition with Help of Red Banyan

Challenge

Highly respected U.K.-based think tank the Henry Jackson Society wanted to generate interest around the release of its latest study “Al-Qaeda in the United States: A Complete Analysis of Terrorism Offenses.” Just a few weeks prior to the report’s launch in Washington, D.C., Red Banyan was retained by the organization to create a buzz around the study. With academic publications released every day in the nation’s capital, Red Banyan needed to break through the noise and garner attention for the new report from the press, policy community and public at large.

Strategy

Red Banyan immediately developed a multi-pronged strategic communications plan specific to the needs of the Henry Jackson Society. After selecting target publications and reporters covering the relevant beats of homeland security, terrorism and intelligence, aggressive media outreach was conducted to build interest around the report. Washington journalists were strongly encouraged to attend the launch event and the team at Red Banyan reached out to dozens of TV and radio networks, newspapers, other print publications and powerful blogs all across the country.

Results

A standing-room only crowd filled the room where the report was unveiled in Washington. The audience of more than 200 attendees included prominent policy experts and scholars, top-tier journalists, and camera crews from CBS, FOX and other international news outlets. The highly engaged crowd posed a number of questions to the author of the report, and press interviews continued at an additional media briefing after the presentation.

As the report was released, it received immediate and widespread coverage from a variety of media. Dozens of in-depth articles and op-eds in top-tier publications such as Newsweek/The Daily Beast, The New York Daily News, U.S. News and World Report and The Jerusalem Post praised the groundbreaking new report. Lengthy TV and radio segments on Fox News and other leading networks featured interviews with the report’s author and discussed the study’s findings. Online articles and mentions of the Henry Jackson Society report saturated news sites and key blogs.

Red Banyan’s strategic outreach also created high awareness of the study within the policy community in Washington. Now in the hands of legislators and thought leaders, the report’s valuable insights have the potential to affect future U.S. policies related to domestic terrorism, homeland security and counterterrorism.

The successful PR efforts had a broader positive effect than simply earning the Henry Jackson Society and its report positive media exposure. The British organization’s name and reputation for robust scholarship today enjoy an unprecedented level of recognition among the press corps, the policy community in the U.S. and the American public.